Upon becoming Emperor, Domitian did away with the facade of democracy that had been maintained by Vespasian and Titus. By formally moving the seat of government to the Imperial Palace, the Senate was rendered obsolete.

But I am not sure whether this change was what crystalled meant, since, I believe, it was reversed after Domitian's death...

Crystalled is a gal, by the way. She said it somewhere that her name is Crystal

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Quasus, you were right, it was Diocletian:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Senate

Wikipedia dixit:

Following the constitutional reforms of the emperor Diocletian, the senate became politically irrelevant, and never regained the power that it had once held. When the seat of government was transferred out of Rome, the senate was reduced to a municipal body.

After his death, Domitian's memory was condemned to oblivion by the Roman Senate, while senatorial authors such as Tacitus, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius published histories propagating the view of Domitian as a cruel and paranoid tyrant.

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Indeed there were emperors who used to esteem the Senate, while others eum unius aestimebant assis if not less. As mentioned before, Diocletian was the first to move the residence of emperors away from Rome on principle, thus robbing it of any political consequence. It was a part of his reforms; in particular, he introduced eastern king's luxury into the emperor's court.